These images show two experiments using devices to
articulate the space in my studio at West Hill, Putney 1968. These lead to the
development of the exhibition at the Greenwich Theatre Gallery in 1969 and to
the installation I created for the Studio Shows event in 1970.

Installation piece: adhesive panels.

‘Plateau and Plain”

68” x 68” Acrylic on cotton 1968

Installation
piece:

plastic adhesive panels.

Installation:

2 diagonal
forms,

Acrylic/cotton
3" x 96" 1968

(no longer in existence)

The studio show was an event organised by Edward Lucie-Smith
and involved a tour of six artists’ studios across London by mostly dealers,
curators and critics. Nigel Hall and David Oxtoby were among the other artists
involved. I was invited to participate in this event directly as a result of
the Greenwich Theatre Gallery exhibition.

I believe that this may have been the first event of this
type in this country. There were at that time, none of the large groupings of
artist studios that now exist, such as those run by Space and Acme. Open
studios became a common event soon after.

In this show, the architecture was of less interest to me, I
was more interested in the space as a room. I wanted to make large-scale works
but did not think of these as museum pieces. I believed that it should be
possible for these works to exist in a domestic setting despite their
formality: that they ought to be accessible outside of a museum or gallery
situation. I did not know how this would be achieved so this event was a
perfect opportunity to try it out.A white room can be an irritation if it is brightly lit as
this was: the intention being, to free the marks from the surfaces to float in
the space. The floor was intended to be disruptive of the space: a platform, to
place the spectator in an unusual position relative to the room and to the
works in it. The walls were also defined to give a certain space to the room
and to make a play with the marks in the paintings.

The
time I spent in the room working an these paintings and the way that they began
to form up led me to anticipate that the paintings might be analogous to ideas
that I had about on the subject of time. An internal discussion or feelings,
concerned with linearity, velocity, direction, moment, continuity and planes
all seemed to be inform and form the works.

The studio show was an event organised by Edward Lucie-Smith
and involved a tour of six artists’ studios across London by mostly dealers,
curators and critics. Nigel Hall and David Oxtoby were among the other artists
involved. I was invited to participate in this event directly as a result of
the Greenwich Theatre Gallery exhibition.